The Cover Story

Monday

Jan 25, 2016 at 12:01 AMJan 26, 2016 at 3:35 PM

The story behind this month's cover design.

Who: Isak Haugland, age 4

Where: On the big ice at Nationwide Arena

When: Friday, Dec. 18, 2015

The backstory: It's always fun to have a hockey-themed cover each winter, so this year we worked with the Columbus Blue Jackets to find one of the youngest hockey-playing kids we could in central Ohio, and we found him in 4-year-old Isak Haugland! He arrived that day with his mom, Kristi, 7-year-old sister Annika and brother Victor, 9. The whole Haugland family, including dad Morten (whom you may know is the founder of Haugland Learning Center, which operates home- and classroom-based education programs for children and young adults with specific learning needs; check them out at hauglandlearningcenter.com), love their ice time. Even Kristi plays in an adult hockey league. Isak plays for the Columbus Chill Youth Hockey Association (CCYHA) Canadiens, and they'll be participating in one of those between-period Future Jackets games at the Blue Jackets' Feb. 25 game (you know those games - where the kids get out there for a minigame and make all the adults in the stands feel like slugs for not knowing how to skate that well).

When he's not zipping around the ice at 100 mph, Isak likes to play on his Kindle, but he says his favorite toys are "cardboard and duct tape" - he and his sibs love to build things with the stuff!